Motorola explains what all it has to do before you get an Ice Cream Sandwich update

Motorola Mobility, on its blog, has done a great piece explaining the steps it has to take before releasing any upgrades to Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich. That includes getting the source code, merging it with its existing frameworks, bug-testing, getting carrier certification, doing an initial pre-release with some of us in the real world (those are those "soak tests" we hear about) and, finally, releasing the upgrade. No small feat, to be sure.

I'd actually assume it would take a similar amount of time, since they'd have to re-engineer ICS to each specific device (sliders, capacitive buttons, etc) in some way.

I hate skins, though. Wish they'd just make them the same as ADWEX and LauncherPro, but preinstalled when you buy the phone. If you want to uninstall it, then you can do so and enjoy a pure Android experience. If not, keep your skin and enjoy that, too.

Hell, HTC could probably charge $2.99 for SenseUI in the Market and people would buy it. Not me, but some people would.

An independent developer does not have to code it to work with all the Verizon (or whatever carrier the phone is on) bloatware, does not have to make it work with their skins, does not have to go through an approval process from the wireless carrier, does not have to go through any type of certifications, etc...

Yes, the "mutli-billion dollar" company can whip it up within two weeks but the rest of the time it needs to perform QA on it before releasing to the Carrier which then the carrier then has to do their QA on it and if there is something that the carrier does not like (such as their Bloatware does not work or the phone saturates their circuits) it then goes back to development all over again and everything starts from ground zero again.

You claim it was due to carrier testing, however no one really knows if that is true or not.

Lots of carriers drag their feet on updates because it is a pure COST point with no revenue upside for them. They have a financial incentive NOT to do it, and to delay it as long as possible so that most customers will just buy a new phone.

Anyone notice on the actual Moto site that it mentions Moto Razr then Droid Razr, to get ICS? Surely they're not talking about the original Razr...unless there's a version out there running Android I'm not aware of. I assumed the DROID Razr was the first & only phone in the Razr lineup that used Android.

Using my "hopefully a placeholder for a nexus if vzw releases before January 9th" and MotoBlur is a very light skin. I would expect the soak for this phone by the end of January. When I got it I signed up for it immediately, just in case my plans didn't pan out. I am part of the soak on the Xoom but have never had to fill out the questionnaire after getting the updates. And I kind of expect Blur to be almost gone with ICS. The only thing I would like to keep is the ability to pull an update and the lap dock Abilities . I don't use motocast but understand people like it. Moto definitely has a speedier track record as far as updates compared to HTC and Samsung, that's the reason why I didn't get the rezound because I thunk it will se ICS sometime near June. With full Sense on top slowing things down. No thanks. If the Nexus is held back past my return date then I will be happy with my Moto.

Are we supposed to have sympathy for them in taking so long to come out with updates? Maybe if they'd stop coming out with new phones and support the ones they have, we might see them sooner. Also, I'm pretty sure a "back from the dead" multi-billion dollar corporation, who just got purchased by the most successful company on the planet, can afford a few more people to speed up the support process of the devices that saved them from extinction. You know?

Moto can take their time releasing ICS for the Bionic. I've been playing around w/ Droid Th3ory's ICS port and it is really nice. There are issues still to be worked out, it is still in Alpha, but these guys can put out updates a hell of a lot faster than Moto/VZW can/will. So I would expect to be running an ICS ported rom before any OTA update from VZW to fix the GB bugs.

They forgot to add "spend 3X the amount of time necessary adding MotoBlur just to make all of the customers angry and reduce the functionality, productivity, UI consistency, and overall brand name reputation."